October in the garden...we have a final crop growing before the weather turns and we must put away our gardening tools for another year.

It's always a sad parting, knowing that we won't be able to dig in the soil again until many months from now. 








Fall also brings clean-up of the beds and our last few turns with the lawn mower. Let's hope we can extend our season a little while longer!

Our new lettuce crop is enjoying the cooler temps of September. 











Our Fredonia grapes are now a beautiful color, hanging from the arbor.

And end of summer bloomers are in full display...

Thanks to students Myles E., Henry C., Mikey L., Hannah G., Owen P., Michael McT., and Brett A., and to parent, Janet Hutcheson, all of whom pitched in last week to help in the orchard and cafeteria to process 5 crates of peaches, trim forsythia, plant lettuce & spinach, weed asparagus and other beds, move the mini-greenhouse, prune trees, mow grass and clean out the shed.




  And there is still a lot to do to get ready for the school year.  Please join us this week in the garden if you have the time.

Mr. Melnicove

This week we picked the last of the peaches and began processing them for later use by the cafeteria.  With help from the Food Service Director, Mrs. Poliquin, student volunteers worked in the school kitchen to get the peaches processed and ready for storage.

Our garden shed is looking super organized...the summer break allowed us to do some cleanup and reorganization of the space.  Looking good...

It's looking colorful out front...the perennials have shown their colors this summer and are wrapping up the display...the purple coneflowers should outlast most others.  A new annual dahlia plant went in a few weeks ago.  Hopefully, it will provide color into early fall.  Our dry spells keep Janet, our front bed gardener, out there with the hose.

Any donations of mums for the front bed this fall would be greatly appreciated!  Just let Mark Melnicove know and Janet will arrange for pick up.

August, already...Recent rains have helped to keep things growing, including the weeds.  Some peaches have been picked for use by the cafeteria.  We had to cover some of the blueberry bushes now that they're almost ready to harvest...had some berries disappearing mysteriously, so the netting will prevent birds from helping themselves.

We're going to get more beds ready for planting...lettuce seeds will go in the next few days so we can have another crop ready for the start of school.

We can always use more volunteers!  There's lots to do in the garden...

Week of July 23rd...Thanks go out to Mikey and Hannah for their gardening help.  Waiting for the blueberries to ripen for harvest...peaches are looking good and about ready to pick.  The cafeteria staff will be processing them for use later during the school year.

Week of July 16th...watering our tomatoes, swiss chard, kale, beets, carrots, and squash...trying to keep the woodchuck(s) from doing more damage.  Weeds are busy growing as well!

Thanks to our volunteers last week:  Mikey, Abbey, & Bob for your excellent work in the garden. They made crutches for peach branches, planted parsley & mesclun, weeded, mulched, mowed, cleaned up trash, watered, and turned compost...

The gardens/orchard are very beautiful this time of year...thank you volunteers.

Today one of the students who was clearing a raised bed found this little guy living among the weeds.

Cafe patio

The rain this spring and early summer has created lush gardens but also the need for lots of weeding.  It can be a full-time job.

Thanks to students Mikey, Henry, Caroline, Abbey, Hannah, Myles, and Jes (class of '08!) for your thoughtful and useful work in the orchard this week. 

Let's garden some more this week--and bring your friends!  We ate from the first few blueberries last week, harvested over 100 scapes and gave them to Martha P. to preserve until she can use them in September in the cafeterias. We have just over 100 tomato plants in  8 raised beds. And some very good looking peaches developing on 5 trees...